Subscription Services (Like Real's) All Hype, Says Real

from the on-second-thought dept

Real's reponse to Napster's unlimited song-rental subscription service was, after a great deal of hype, revealed to be a copycat subscription service. Now, three months later, Real CEO Rob Glaser said on the company's earnings call that "portable subscriptions are more hype than substance." Let's see, Glaser says, "The music subscription market is the core of our business," at its big launch event, the service fails to sell, and now it's all hype. How did that happen? Launching a service that works on 3 relatively unpopular MP3 players because of your choice of DRM doesn't help. Or perhaps it's the fact that users can't be bothered to consistently resync their devices to renew the DRM licenses, and can't burn CDs. Or maybe consumers saw through the smoke and mirrors and aren't buying into these services' questionable value -- at least not when they've got competitors charging half the price.

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